The present invention relates in general to a tube supporting device, and in particular, to a new and useful device for supporting the tubes of a tube bundle, particularly the tubes of a fluidized bed stream generator.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,852,363 to Parent discloses clamps which have inverted saddles shaped to embrace around the sides of tubes in a heat exchanger. Each clamp is formed with a spacer abutting an adjacent clamp in order to separate a plurality of tubes in a direction transverse to the axis of the tubes. U.S. Pat. No. 4,220,199 to Romanos discloses a spacer structure for tubes in a heat exchanger. The structure includes an elongated continuous strip which extends transversely to the axis of the tubes and carries projections that are bent to embrace the tubes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,795 to Loiez et al discloses a device for Securing a panel of heat exchanger tubes and utilizes a vertical tube having fins attached to opposite sides thereof. The fins carry a plurality of vertically spaced shoulders which embrace and support latches for engaging the bottom of heat exchanger tubes extending transversely to the vertical tube. Upper clamping parts are fixed to the fins for bearing down on the heat exchanger tubes and securing them to the vertical tube. Other references which show the use of an elongated support tube for carrying a plurality of transverse tubes are U.S. Pat. No. 2,893,698 to Nunninghoff and U.S. Pat. No. 4,100,889 to Chayes. U-shaped clamping structures for holding tubes to a wall are disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 4,019,468 to Miles and U.S. Pat. No. 4,550,690 to Baugher.
Spacer plates with or without bent or added support fingers are taught by U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,236 to Romanos; U.S. Pat. No. 3,854,529 to Sagan; U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,189 to Lecon; U.S. Pat. No. 3,998,268 to Sagan and U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,618 to Fournier. Also, see U.S. Pat. No. 1,824,459 to Beckwith: U.S. Pat. No. 3,397,431 to Walker and U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,315 to Waryasz. Clamps for cables are taught by U.S. Pat. No. 2,081,974 to Arnold and U.S. Pat. No. 2,099,465 to Burleson.